Video 10:23
Calls for more disability support

Although the Labor Government reforms are slowly rolling out, those among people with disabilities says there has been little change in the quality of living.

Transcript

AIRLIE WARD, PRESENTER: Welcome to Stateline. Hello, I'm Airlie Ward. Nearly one in four Tasmanians live with a disability. But so far in this election campaign they've heard very little that pleases them.

Labor Government reforms are slowly rolling out, but people with disabilities and their families say there's been little change in their quality of life.

Many have little or no support. Some are on long waiting lists for home help, day centres or group homes. Others need specialised equipment.

Stateline's Fiona Breen spent time with two affected families as well as one not for profit organisation.

She discovered that for many in the sector life is a daily struggle.

FIONA BREEN, REPORTER: Making Anzac biscuits is a serious business for the trainees at Aurora Disability Services. Every biscuit has to be a certain shape and size, ready to sell.

COOKIE COOK: Don't look good.

FIONA BREEN: Is that a bit dry in there?

COOKIE COOK: It is dry. This is going to look absolute lumpy I can tell you.

FIONA BREEN: Aurora is a charity running day support and vocational training for intellectually and physically disabled people, ranging in age from 16 to 80.

ANGELIQUE PAYNE, AURORA DISABILITY SERVICES: We do receive a small amount of funding from the department for limited staff.

But other than that we have to come up with the money ourselves for services. We have two business ventures that the clients actually operate themselves. We have our old chapel tea rooms which is the vocational training facility and also a catering service.

FIONA BREEN: Anzac biscuits are one of their flagship products and one of their biggest selling, leading up to Anzac Day last year they baked and distributed nearly 24,000 in eight days. Raising the funds to continue operating is exhausting for staff and families.

ANGELIQUE PAYNE: We're always applying for funding. We are constantly begging, for want of another word, and constantly being told, no, there is no funding. The amount of resources and time it takes to put in an application is extremely lengthy and of course takes us away from the direct care role of the clients while we're up here typing. And putting together submissions.

FIONA BREEN: Aurora's funded for 6.5 full time staff which is about 50 per cent of what they need to run the operation.

There's no financial assistance actually attached to each of their 360 trainees.

ANGELIQUE PAYNE: It gets to a stage where if you keep kicking the dog it stays down eventually. And that's how we feel sometimes because we keep asking and they just there's no reason given, it is just no funding, no funding, no funding.

And then there's a news story that night and there's $40 million dished out for Elwick race horse or lights at the cricket for them to play of an evening at Bellerive. So it's priorities that are wrong. In comparison to people's needs.

FIONA BREEN: To keep going they rely on a pool of 90 volunteers, many of them elderly. Some of the trainees are referred to Aurora by disability services but no extra funding comes with them.

ANGELIQUE PAYNE: Quite often we have Disabilities Services ringing us and saying that they have nowhere for a particular client and asking us if we can take them one day, two days, every day. But of course when we say look it depends on the support needs of the client, they may be requiring high support with their personal care, maybe challenging behaviours, they don't actually offer any support to go with the person.

FIONA BREEN: So they're not giving you the funds you need but they're still referring clients?

ANGELIQUE PAYNE: Yes, weekly.

FIONA BREEN: On rare occasions, parents meet at Aurora's tea rooms for a cuppa and a chat. The challenges of living with their intellectually and physically disabled children is always part of the conversation.

PARENT CARER ONE: Hanging around all the time wanting your attention.

PARENT CARER TWO: They do don't they, they're like shadows. They're always behind you, I turn around and Gary is in me face.

PARENT CARER THREE: If he's anything like Dallas, I can't move anything. Cause he'll put it back again, throw a tantrum and put it back.

PARENT CARER FOUR: They don't like change.

FIONA BREEN: Ros Ward sends her 23 year old son, Michael, to Aurora three days a week. Mrs Ward believes Aurora is the best place for her autistic son but the department doesn't fund him to go there.

ROS WARD, PARENT: I've asked for the funding to come with him. Yes. And it's gone up the line but we haven't heard back.

FIONA BREEN: So how long ago was that?

ROS WARD: That was last year. Yes. And each time I question disabilities services it's, well we're discussing that. But I know it won't happen.

FIONA BREEN: 81 year old Len Akroyd has been taking his 51 year old daughter Julie to Aurora for 20 years.

Up and back from Collins Vale twice a day. Through the years he and his wife Barbara have helped fundraise growing berries for Aurora's jam.

LEN AKROYD, PARENT: They get nothing. They've got to do it all themselves and it's very hard to do.

There's a lot of people there to look after and that sort of thing. They really need some help now cause it's not getting any easier now. Cause we're all getting older and some of those have been there since I was going there 20 years and they're getting older and the people that looks after them are getting older.

It doesn't, it's a bit harder to come up with it every day.

FIONA BREEN: Mr and Mrs Akroyd are typical of the many ageing carers with adult children at Aurora. They care for Julie full time with little or no support.

LEN AKROYD: What's going to happen to her after I'm gone? Cause I've hung on to her for as long as I could, really too long I suppose. But I had nowhere else to send her.

FIONA BREEN: They don't have a guarantee of a live in service for Julie if they get sick or one of them dies.

LEN AKROYD: That's what I need; somewhere the same as other people need somewhere to put these ones of ours. Because they need 24 hour care. I don't want them to end up in an aged place. They stay young at heart for a long time and I don't think they're ready for aged care.

FIONA BREEN: In contrast, Donna Triffitt is reasonably happy with the services she's secured for her 32 year old son Brendan. He was left with a brain injury after a drug overdose eight years ago. From coma to having little movement and little speech, Brendan's come a long way, but he still needs 24 hour care.

DONNA TRIFFITT, PARENT: Brendan has got so much done for him because I have fought really hard and I've had to fight for it and I mean really bad. There's people out there that's got no services. There's not enough out there. There's not enough money.

FIONA BREEN: He lives in a group home, attends a day service and has access to a seating clinic and a physio. It's taken years of battling.

DONNA TRIFFITT: I've had to go and sit in offices and I even got threatened to be dragged out of an office once and from a politician and I said I'd love that to happen.

But it's been huge, it's just been humungous.

FIONA BREEN: Donna Triffitt wants more support for people with brain injuries.

There's not enough services. There's not much money. There is not enough people acknowledging there is an actual problem out there. And so yeah there's definitely problems.

FIONA BREEN: National Disabilities Services is one of a number of organisations in the sector seeking answers from the three political parties about their commitments to the sector.

MARGARET REYNOLDS, NATIONAL DISABILITIES SERVICES: Everybody is so well intentioned about, about disability and getting it right but translating those good intentions into practical, real services on the ground is extremely difficult.

FIONA BREEN: In a letter to the party, she says the sector is frustrated that rhetoric is not translating into practical changes. In the last State Budget, $114 million was allocated to not for profit organisations. To deliver at least 90 per cent of services.$28 million stayed with the department to administer policy and run a small number of day and respite programs. There's little change at the grass roots.

MARGARET REYNOLDS: I think the test ultimately has to be about coming up if you like with a formula that says that for every dollar spent, X proportion must go to a real individual who needs equipment, service, respite, education, training, whatever service it is that they need.

FIONA BREEN: At regional forums with the disability sector, the Labor Party's Lyn Thorpe has reinforced her commitments to reforms, including a new system of funding, a reformed equipment scheme, better access to public buildings and a greater focus on the individual.

Labor says it's already demonstrating a commitment to people with disabilities. It's yet to release a disability policy. The Greens are committing to $4.4 million worth of programs including two autism clinics, a disability services commissioner and an audit of Tasmanian's living with disabilities.

The Liberal Party's Brett Whiteley says his party will release its policy next week, describing it as significant.

National Disabilities Services says it's time to answer the sector's questions.

MARGARET REYNOLDS: You can have commitment and policies and of course we need that. But at the end of the day it's the family or the individual waiting for support, waiting for respite that determines whether or not a policy is actually working.

FIONA BREEN: For those on the ground, change can't come soon enough.

LEN AKROYD: I haven't got any peace of mind at the moment and I don't look like having any either for a while because I can't see anything being done. But it would be nice if it did.